One of America’s top former generals compared the situation in Syria Tuesday to a historic nuclear disaster, implicitly criticizing the U.S. for allowing it to worsen, and accused Russia’s President of trying to re-establish an empire.

Retired Gen. David Petraeus, testifying before the Senate Armed Service Committee, also recommended that the U.S. establish safe zones for Sunnis inside Syria and potentially put American boots on the grounds in Iraq to stop the spread of ISIS.

The former commanding general of U.S. forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan equated the situation in Syria today with one of the most deadly nuclear accidents in history.

Syria “is a geopolitical Chernobyl — spewing instability and extremism over the region and the rest of the world,” Petraeus told the Senate Armed Services Committee, referencing the 1986 nuclear meltdown in the former Soviet Union. “Like a nuclear disaster, the fallout from the meltdown of Syria threatens to be with us for decades, and the longer it is permitted to continue, the more severe the damage will be.”

Part of the solution to stabilizing the situation inside Syria would entail helping to protect large swaths of the Sunni population from bombing by the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in order to bring in more willing partners to fight ISIS.

I understand criticizing Putin over Ukraine, even though I think his actions make clear sense from the standpoint of Russia’s national interests and their perception of NATO’s hostile intent. But criticizing Putin for Russian involvement in Syria is crazy.

Putting troops in harm’s way to protect the Sunnis would be essentially aiding and abetting ISIS, the Sunni Jihadists. Petraeus claims that Assad is attacking the Sunnis and causing them to radicalize and join ISIS. It wouldn’t surprise me if Assad’s methods crossed lines and did alienate surviving civilians. But the Sunnis were “radicalized” by United States interventionism. Assad sees them as a source of terrorism and he has good reason to do so.

Pretending he is simply some aggressor and not working to save his own life is just dishonest.

Any troops we sent there to protect the Sunni population would be caught between Assad’s troops and ISIS. How much did the Iranians love the presence of U.S. troops “protecting” them? The Sunnis in Syria would be worse!

The United States government insisting that we have the right to delegitimize Assad’s government in Syria has been the reason why the region is unstable. Russia is trying to fix the problem that we have created.